North Korea sending 30,000 troops to Russia is a ‘win-win’: analysts

Moscow gets more soldiers without risking another mass mobilisation, Pyongyang receives money and military tech

He also claimed Pyongyang was planning to send additional missile launchers to support Moscow’s military campaign.

“This is quite a plausible claim,” said Oh Gyeong-seob, a North Korea-focused political scientist and senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “It would be a win-win deal for both countries.”

A steady stream of cheap frontline troops from North Korea offered Russia “a cost-effective way to recruit soldiers”, Oh said, “while Pyongyang receives money and military technology in return”.